Food

Food is our focus at Bona Fide. With a plethora of fruits from the farm, salads from our garden and fresh fish, eggs, and vegetables from surrounding communities cooked by our local chefs, we never fail to eat well.

Work

A wide range of jobs is necessary to keep Bona Fide running as a farm and as an institution. Volunteers and local year-round workers cooperate to share skills and strengths and to get it all done.

Drink

Every day we drink juices prepared from our diverse fruit trees. More often than not, we serve a variety of ferments such as kefir soda and kombucha.

Education

Learning is essential to our project. We aim to ensure that anyone who comes, whether for an hour or a year, leaves with new skills and knowledge.

Relaxing

We work hard on the farm, but in our down time we’re blessed with wonderful structures, luscious greenery, and awe-inspiring views.

The Farm

Bona Fide’s projects revolve around both short term and long term needs of the local communities surrounding the pilot farm, Finca Bona Fide. Long term projects focus on creating sustainable economics that steward the health and diversity of the community and environment. These long term solutions begin with establishing relations with community members and listening to their needs in relation to project goals. Projects begun in this direction support international organic certification, diverse farming system designs, seed and tree stock donation/planting, value added product market research, ongoing educational and practical workshops, and co-operative organizing. In layman terms this means growing seed stock, setting up nurseries, collecting species diversity, adapting sustainable designs to local conditions, learning what the export market wants and planning for it, setting up workshops to demonstrate simple techniques in planting and placing, and meeting with local farmers to discuss the benefits and processes of forming co-operatives.

Short term projects are concerned with the immediate needs of the local communities. These projects usually focus on health, safety, and education. Though these projects vary depending on need, current endeavors include working with a local primary school to build compost toilets and implement a waste management program in the community. The lack of a waste management system and open burning of trash create immediate health concerns. Project Bona Fide’s angle is to work with the upcoming generations to realize needed change.

In rural Nicaragua the potential for projects is as diverse as the many needs. Project Bona Fide’s dedication is to address as many of these needs as capability and support allow.

Want to know more about the farm and its systems? See permaculture in action with this interactive map of planting zones.